Launch of WHO programme on Increasing access to health workers in remote and rural areas through improved retention
2-4 February 2009, World Health Organization, Geneva
On 2 February, WHO launched a new programme to increase access to health workers in remote and rural areas through improved retention. The programme is an integral part of the organisation's renewed efforts to strengthen health systems through a primary healthcare approach.
More than 30 international experts on health workforce rural retention met in Geneva to map out a plan of action to develop evidence-based recommendations, for publication in Spring 2010.
The recommendations constitute one of three interdependent pillars upon which the new rural retention programme will be based. The other two pillars are to gather and share evidence and to support countries in implementing effective health workforce retention strategies in rural and remote areas.
Opening the meeting, WHO Assistant Director General Carissa Etienne emphasized the importance of developing recommendations that will have a real effect at country level: "This is why, from the very beginning of the process, we are integrating a focus on the eventual implementation of recommended strategies, to ensure maximum impact where it is needed most."
- Full report
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Concept note
pdf, 25kb -
Background paper (draft)
pdf, 310kb -
Background paper appendices (draft)
pdf, 157kb
Presentations
Day 1
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Human resources for health development - WHO perspectives
pdf, 161kb -
WHO programme on increasing access to health workers in remote and rural areas through improved retention
pdf, 604kb -
WHO guidelines and the Guidelines Review Committee
pdf, 502kb -
Increasing access to health workers in remote and rural areas through improved retention
pdf, 1.37Mb
Day 2
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Realist inquiry: a valuable addition ?
pdf, 256kb -
Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE): a methodology for eliciting health workers preferences
pdf, 107kb -
Health workforce challenges in Romania
pdf, 34kb - Strategies to overcome physician shortage in northern Ontario: A study of policy implementation over 35 years
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- Figure extracted from the paper: "Strategies to overcome physician shortage in northern Ontario: A study of policy implementation over 35 years"
pdf, 34kb -
Evaluating and designing policy options for rural retention:some insights from Niger
pdf, 359kb -
Evaluation of medicalization programme of rural areas in Mali
pdf, 53kb -
Health workforce retention and the Kampala Declaration
pdf, 426kb
Day 3